Evelyn A. Gordon

Evelyn Annabelle Gordon of Bel Air died Friday, June 24th at Mariner Health of Bel Air after a short battle with liver cancer. She was 82.

Born in Everett, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of the late Alvey Elmer Smith and Alice Ritchey Smith. She graduated with her sister, Lulu, with the class of 1940 from the Everett Area High School.

Throughout her 63 ½ years of marriage, she was a devoted wife and mother. She and her husband, William “Paul” Gordon, were married on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor Day. She worked briefly outside the home upon their return to Maryland from her husband’s military service in Alabama and living in Pennsylvania for a year. She worked at the Montgomery Ward Mail Order Warehouse in Baltimore. Their first home which her husband built was on McTavish Avenue in Baltimore where she began raising her two children. Upon moving to Harford County in 1960 as her husband’s home construction business grew, she became very active in the community. She was a member of the Colonial Acres Homemakers’ Club, attended and later became a member of the Bel Air United Methodist Church, assisted as a Girl Scout parent volunteer and Cookie Chairperson, and worked to support several charitable organizations including the American Heart Association, as a neighborhood contact person.

Mrs. Gordon gave of her time to the Harford County Public Schools as a volunteer for many years in her daughter’s classroom, Cheryl G. Monk, who taught fifth grade and was a reading specialist at William Paca/Old Post Road Elementary for 16 years.

Mrs. Gordon and her son, Gary P. Gordon, became very active in the Junior Orioles Program which led to her becoming a lifelong avid Oriole Baseball fan until her death.

Mrs. Gordon also enjoyed flower gardening and worked with her husband to put out a vegetable garden each year canning and freezing many of the harvested fruits and vegetables. Family and friends were her priority. She was a loving, kind and gentle soul who gave her time and efforts freely. She was a supportive wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister and friend to all who knew her.

Mrs. Evelyn Gordon was an accomplished seamstress and talented at creating many handicrafts including ceramics, crocheted afghans, knitted pillow covers, quilts and ceramic dolls and doll clothing. She especially enjoyed giving her cherished handiwork as gifts to family and friends.

Mrs. Gordon is survived by her husband, William “Paul” Gordon of Bel Air; a daughter, Cheryl Gordon Monk, and her husband George Alan Monk of Bel Air; a son, Gary Paul Gordon of Mechanicsburg, PA; and two grandchildren, Jared Alan Monk of Bel Air and Leslie Ann Gordon of Mechanicsburg, PA. She is the loving sister of Melvin Smith, Josephine Magaha and Lulu Grubb all of Everett, PA. Mrs. Gordon was predeceased by the following brothers and sisters: Alvey “Pid” Smith; Bernard “B.R.” Smith; Don Smith; Barbara Wilson; and Betty Jane Leslie.

Memorial donations can be made to the Bel Air United Methodist Church, 21 Linwood Ave., Bel Air, MD 21014 or the American Diabetes Association MD Affiliate Inc., 3120 Timanus Lane, Suite 106, Baltimore, MD 21244.